


The Bet

by Twyd



Category: Durarara!!
Genre: Developing Relationship, Light BDSM, M/M, Multi, Possessive Behavior, Protectiveness, Slash, Threesome, Threesome - M/M/M, Trust, Yakuza, Yaoi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-25
Updated: 2020-07-25
Packaged: 2021-03-05 19:27:43
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,635
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25510558
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Twyd/pseuds/Twyd
Summary: Akabayashi makes a bet with Shiki that he can tempt the informant into a threesome.
Relationships: Akabayashi Mizuki/Orihara Izaya, Akabayashi Mizuki/Orihara Izaya/Shiki Haruya, Orihara Izaya/Shiki Haruya
Comments: 7
Kudos: 131





	The Bet

**Author's Note:**

> Found a draft of this on my laptop, so thought I'd tidy it and post. Hope everyone's safe and well <3

Akabayashi and Shiki have their feet up in the HQ. They are celebrating, passing a bottle of sake they’d been saving back and forth, after finally ridding themselves of a rival gang. Their informant had, for once, been instrumental to their success rather than one they had to keep both eyes on.

“Call me crazy,” Akabayashi muses. “But I think he’s growing on me.”

Shiki huffs a laugh from around his cigarette.

“He’s good at what he does. Otherwise he wouldn’t still be around.”

Akabayashi chuckles. “I remember when Kine first introduced him, and his IQ and school results were in the paper. I thought he’d become an astronaut or something.”

“He’s still young,” Shiki points out, though neither of them expect anything different from Izaya at this point. “And it’s not like he’s doing badly. Not many people in their twenties have a penthouse in Shinjuku.”

“Hmm.”

Shiki can tell he’s not done on the subject.

“There’s something I wanted to discuss with you about our informant,” Akabayashi starts, leaning over to top up Shiki’s sake. “Only you have to promise not to laugh.”

“I promise nothing.”

“Eh, I thought as much.” He shrugs. “I’m just going to be really blunt and say it.”

“I’m not stopping you.”

“Well, you know, I’m interested in Izaya.”

Shiki waits for him to elaborate.

“And you can be as poker faced as you like, but I’ve seen you check him out when he’s not looking.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“I think he’d be up for it.” Akabayashi muses, as if Shiki hadn’t spoken. “So why don’t we invite him here to, mm, celebrate with us.”

“You must be out of your mind,” Shiki chuckles. “Your jokes are getting worse with your age.”

“Ah Shiki, so close-minded.” Akabayashi shakes his head sadly. Shiki still cannot quite tell if he is joking or not.

“He would _not_ be ‘up for it,’” Shiki says.

“What makes you say that?” Akabayashi persists. “He’s young, he’s single and he’s a bit strange. And he has no self-preservation instinct.”

“It’s still a big jump to go from that to - to what you’re suggesting.”

“Well sure, he’s not going to jump at once. But if we put it to him gently and give him a drink or two…”

Shiki is shaking his head.

“He’d take it the wrong way. He’d been insulted.”

“Would he? I don’t think he gets insulted by anything.”

“He sometimes gets unwanted attention on his way home at night. He doesn’t care for it.”

“How do you know?” 

“Kine told me. When we were still speaking.”

“Oh,” Akabayashi says, deflating. “Well, yes. But this is different. We’re not some creepy perverts.”

“Aren’t we?” Shiki chuckles. “How will he see us as any different from creeps on the street who heckle him?”

“He knows us. He likes us. Especially you.”

Shiki chooses not to react to this.

“I think,” Akabayashi continues. “If we go about it in the right way, it’s certainly possible.”

“And you’ve assumed so suddenly that I’m on board,” Shiki drawls.

“Of course you are. You haven’t protested once.”

“Because I enjoy some light entertainment. If you’re going to invite Izaya here and propose a threesome, I can’t wait to see what he does, and how he subsequently finds a way to ruin your life when you've insulted him.”

Akabayashi is undeterred.

“I’ve got some small assignment to discuss with him anyway - we’ll invite him here to talk about that. And we’ll say that we’re celebrating - which he’ll already know about - and offer him a drink. And then another. And then - we’ll see.”

“And if he refuses a drink?”

“He won’t. He’s had a drink with me before.”

Shiki shakes his head. “He won’t go for it. At best he’ll laugh at you, at worst he’ll get offended and cause us trouble in revenge.”

“Care to put money on that?”

“All right. At least then it won’t be a complete waste of time.”

“10000 yen?”

“Why not.”

They shake on it, and Akabyashi takes out his phone to make the call.

“Hello, Orihara. Can you come to the HQ this evening? Shiki and I have another job for you.”

“The HQ?” Shiki hears the informant’s laugh. “Am I in trouble?”

“Oh no. The opposite, in fact. We’re celebrating.”

“You’re celebrating and yet you want me around?”

“We have something else we need doing. We have sake.”

There’s a little pause, the informant clearly suspicious. Shiki raises an eyebrow at Akabayashi pointedly.

“Shall we ask someone else?” Akabayashi prompts

“No, but...maybe I could meet either of you in the car later on?”

“No, we’ll be here for a while.”

Shiki takes the phone from Akabayashi.

“Relax, Orihara. If you were in trouble we wouldn’t be inviting you over and offering you sake.”

“Oh, I know,” the informant says quickly. “Hm, let’s see...I’ll be there in an hour.”

Akabayashi gives his friend an amused look. “Keen, aren’t we?”

“You were ballsing it up. I can’t win my bet if you can’t even get him here.”

-

Izaya _is_ suspicious, although he smirks through it, his unease apparent as he glances at the door more than once. After receiving his brief for Akabayashi’s probably made-up assignment, he barely touches the sake they pour for him. Shiki wonders if Akabayashi will be able to read these signals or if he will do something stupid. But he vows to sit back and watch without interfering.

“Have more,” Akabayashi urges the informant.

“Trying to get me drunk?”

“So paranoid,” Akabayashi shakes his head sadly. “No-one trusts a Yakuza.”

“Poor you. No-one trusts an informant either.”

“Seriously though, we’re very pleased with you. You haven’t pissed us off for a long time.”

“I’m honoured,” he says mockingly. 

“You’re not, but have a drink anyway.”

“Why do you keep saying ‘we?’”

“How’d you mean?”

“Well, only one of you seems to be talking.” He glances at the so far silent Shiki.

“Would you prefer it if we took it in turns?” Shiki says laconically.

Akabayashi sniggers, and quickly disguises it as a cough.

Izaya notices however, and his eyes turn cold.

“Well, I’ve got your brief. I’d better be going.”

“So soon?” Akabayashi says. “Finish your sake.”

He knocks it back in one. “...Thanks.”

“You’re wasting it, drinking it like that.”

“Better not give it to me again then. Nice to see you both.”

“But -”

“Let him go, Akabayashi,” Shiki interrupts, seeing Izaya tense. 

“Don’t be so rude, Shiki-san.” Akabayashi says. “I was only -”

“Was there something else you wanted to talk to me about?” Izaya says tightly.

They look at each other. Shiki’s eyebrows raise, but he says nothing.

“Well, yes, actually, there is.” 

And Akabayashi asks him. Just like that.

Izaya sits quite still. They both watch him intently. Then he laughs.

“No.”

“No?” Akabayashi repeats.

“That’s right. Thanks but no thanks. Can I go now?”

It’s such an anti-climax it’s almost funny. Shiki raises his eyebrows again, but Akabayashi refuses to give up.

“Don’t you want to think about it?”

Izaya looks between them warily.

“Is that Yakuza-speak for you’ll break my legs if I don’t?”

“Of course not. But I thought you’d at least, you know, consider it.”

“Why?”

“Well, why not?”

Shiki chuckles.

“I told you so,” he says. Then to Izaya, “I told him you wouldn’t be interested.”

“So it was a joke?”

“Oh no, we’re very serious,” Akabayashi says.

Izaya waves the folder in his hand.

“Is this serious? Or was it just to get me here?”

“Oh, that’s serious. Just not very urgent.”

“Great,” Izaya says, sounding annoyed. “Can I go?”

“Don’t be offended,” Akabayashi says. “It was just a friendly offer. Think nothing of it.”

"I'm not offended," Izaya says.

"Good. Have another drink, then?"

“Just let him go,” Shiki says. “He’s upset.”

Izaya throws him a look.

“I’m not upset.”

“Excuse me, upset was the wrong word. Disturbed, uncomfortable, uninterested.”

Izaya almost looks as though he might argue.

“And I thought you’d be more ballsy,” Akabayashi says sadly.

“What’s ballsy about letting the two of you do me?” he sneers, getting to his feet.

“What’s with the ‘letting?’ You’d get as much out of it as we would.”

“I’m not interested.”

“OK,” Akabayashi says. “No hard feelings.”

Izaya shakes his head. He still looks annoyed, but makes no move to leave. 

“Tempted?” Akabayashi asks him.

He shakes his head again.

“It’s not worth it.”

“But you’re curious, yes?”

Izaya hesitates. 

“Sit down,” Akabayashi tells him.

To Shiki’s amazement, he does.

After a moment, swallowing and speaking to the floor, he says, “If we were to - do something - I wouldn’t want it to have an effect on my assignments or my reputation."

“Of course,” Akabayashi says, recovering quickly, throwing an imperceptible glance of triumph at Shiki. “This will be completely separate from work.”

“Maybe.” He starts playing with the edge of the folder. “But maybe you’d use it against me sometime in future.”

“No, we wouldn’t,” Akabayashi says. “Next.”

He laughs self-consciously.

“I mean, you might. I haven’t exactly endeared myself to either of you over the years.”

“No, we won’t.”

He says nothing.

“Come on, what else?” Akabayashi coaxes.

“Would you stop if I asked you to?” he asks, almost casually. “I mean, I’ve never done this before and I might decide I don’t like it. And I don’t know if you’d stop if I needed you to. Or if you -”

“We’ll stop if you tell us to,” Akabayashi says.

They both watch him, leaning forward, the bet almost forgotten.

“...Well?”

“Shut up, I’m thinking.”

They normally wouldn’t allow someone to speak to them in such a way, but Izaya himself barely seemed to have realised what he’s said.

“I don’t want you to do anything weird either.”

“Define weird.”

Izaya throws Akabayashi an impatient look. “Anything that’s not straight-up sex. Don’t piss on me, don’t electrocute me.”

“Sounds like you’ve had some wild nights.”

Izaya glares at him.

“I’m not doing this if you’re not going to take it seriously.”

“All right, don’t be so sensitive. I can confirm we’re not going to do anything weird. Next?”

“No cameras.”

“Fine.”

“Don’t hit me or strangle me or anything like that.”

“Sure.”

“And wear condoms.”

“You have something? How off-putting.”

“No,” he says, colouring. “Just - wear them, OK?”

“Fine. Anything else?”

“Don’t get too rough.”

“Sure.”

“And stop if I tell you to.”

“We’ve already had that one. But fine, it’s the most important one.”

Izaya looks like he’s struggling to think of something else. He fiddles with the folder absentmindedly. 

Akabayashi reaches over to pluck the folder out of his hands and lay it on the table.

Izaya looks at him helplessly, and then at Shiki.

“Well...when did you have in mind?”

“How about right now?” Akabayashi says, his eyes gleaming.

“Now?” Izaya starts laughing. “Here, in your HQ?”

“Why not? It’s clean, private, and you might change your mind if we set a future date.”

-

It’s only fair to let Akabayashi go first. They strip him between them, slowly, coaxing him to lean back into Shiki’s arms, while Akabayashi removes the last of his clothes. He is very tense.

“Take it easy,” Akabayashi murmurs, running his lips over the informant’s legs. “We’ll stop if you want us to.”

They take their time, massaging him, teasing him, making their way slowly to the more sensitive parts of his body. 

“I think,” he blurts suddenly, just as Akabayashi gets his hand around the informant’s cock. “I’m going to chicken out.”

“That’s OK,” Akabayashi says, with more guile than Shiki had given him credit for. “Chicken out if you want to. Tell us to stop and we’ll stop.”

And as if by magic Izaya relaxes once more.

Akabayashi moves away and starts digging around in a desk, where he apparently keeps condoms and lube. Shiki expects Izaya to call him on this, but he appears to be too worked up to even notice.

Izaya reaches behind himself blindly when Akabayashi returns between his legs, grabbing at Shiki’s shoulders and hair. Shiki holds his hands instead, entwining their fingers, smirking gently at the shiver it sends through the informant’s body.

Izaya gives a jolt when Akabayashi’s finger enters him, almost kicking the other man in the face. Shiki and Akabayashi exchange a glance.

“Have you done this before?”

“Of course. Just not, for a while.”

He relaxes, keeps his face averted. Akabayashi is eyeing him like an animal. Shiki himself is not much better. Slides his hand down Izaya’s stomach to take hold of his hardening cock, the skin silk-soft in his palm. He twitches, whimpers, pushes his head more firmly into Shiki’s neck, who shudders and has to fight back the urge to push Akabayashi out of the way and take matters into his own hands.

When they come to fucking him, they pick him up between them, one bracing them on his chest while the other takes his hips. They mouth him all over, compete over who can make him yell the loudest, guide his mouth to whoever’s cock is free, even when he is upside down. Especially when he’s upside down.

Finally the three of them collapse back on the sofa, Izaya boneless between them. Akabayashi had gone first, but that meant Shiki had been the one to bring Izaya to his final finish, to tip him over the edge when his body didn’t think itself capable of more pleasure.

“N-no more,” Izaya stutters now, his face is buried in Shiki’s neck, hair soaked, his legs somewhere behind them in Akabayashi’s lap. His hand is limp in Shiki’s fingers. 

“Well,” Akabayashi says, after a moment. “I for one would like to do that again.”

-

“I told you,” Akabayashi had chuckled, over and over, after Shiki paid him their bet money. Shiki doesn’t begrudge it. If anything, he is a little disappointed in himself for not taking the initiative himself.

They meet fairly regularly after that first time. They move to Akabayashi’s place, to avoid interruptions, and often made it the whole night. Akabayashi's bed is big enough for Shiki to not mind sharing it with him, providing the informant is sandwiched between them. He and Akabayashi never touch each other except by accident, or to occasionally push each other out of the way. 

Akabayashi may have been the one to initiate their 'relationship,' but Shiki liked to think that he was more in tune with Izaya’s needs. The informant tended to keep his eyes closed when they fucked, but it was always Shiki’s hands he managed to find and cling to.

Outside of Akabayashi’s bedroom, their lives and their business continued as usual. Izaya never missed a deadline. They gave him no preferential treatment. They had a codeword in their messages for when they arranged to meet up, which wasn’t as often as Shiki or Akabayashi would like. Izaya would only come once a week, sometimes not even that, and still seemed edgy before they got going. At one point he truly did succeed in kicking Akabayashi in the face - by accident, Shiki saw, in a moment of panic - but he saw Akabayashi’s single eye darken and Izaya pale, and quickly intervened. Akabayashi had laughed it off, and they managed to convince Izaya to stay, but still.

One evening, in a rare moment of confidence, Akabayashi tells Shiki of a new club he’d started going to, of the boys they had there. “A few of them look a little like Izaya, and they’re up for anything.” He pauses. “Izaya’s a little uptight, you have to admit. As much as I love him and his little puppy yelps, I hoped he'd be more open-minded.”

So far in their adventures Akabayashi had asked permission to tie the informant up, to spank him, to use toys on him, to pour sake over him and lick it off, and Izaya had so far refused every request. And Shiki never bothered asking for anything, as he knew what the answer would be.

Winter closes in, giving them longer nights and colder mornings. Izaya shows up one day with a red scarf tucked round his throat. The effect is astonishing, highlighting the maroon of his eyes, making him look like a particularly attractive demon.

“Can we tie you up with that?” Akabayashi asks at once.

To their surprise, he agrees.

-

They tie him up other times after that. Akabayashi has a pair of toy handcuffs (‘with a safety catch,’ he’s had to explain to Izaya, who thumbs it open and closed several times before he would consent to put them on) that they often play with.

They are in the midst of such a game, Izaya’s wrists cuffed to the metal of the headboard, Shiki about to enter him, when he stiffens and says, “These are the wrong cuffs. There’s no safety catch.”

“What?” Akabayashi barely seems to hear him.

Shiki lifts his head slowly, looks between Izaya and the cuffs. Izaya goes tense below them, a little flicker of fear in his eyes, as he realises he’s powerless. Shiki sits up all the way and moves away from him.

“You idiot,” he says to Akabayashi. “Find the keys.”

“But do we have to -”

“Yes.”

Akabayashi takes off grumbling.

Shiki moves off the bed and starts to feel around Akabayashi’s desk. It doesn’t take him long to find what he’s looking for. He unbends the paperclip and straightens it, turning back to the bed, where Izaya is experimenting with removing the cuffs by losing a few layers of skin.

“Bear with me,” Shiki says, kneeling on the bed. “I haven’t done this for a while.”

The lock comes loose just as Akabayashi returns with the missing keys.

“Do you want to keep going?” Shiki asks before Akabayashi can jump on the informant, looking directly in his eyes.

He looks uneasy.

“I don’t know. You’re probably both annoyed…”

“We’re fine,” Akabayashi says.

Izaya throws him an irritated look.

“Did you do that on purpose?”

“Of course not. Why would I? I keep them in the same drawer.”

“Well, maybe you shouldn’t.”

“OK,” Shiki says. “Maybe that's enough for today."

“No, it’s OK.” The informant looks embarrassed. “Let’s keep going.”

They do, but Shiki notices he doesn’t come. Izaya soon makes a flimsy excuse and doesn’t stay the night.

“Did you even notice that he didn’t come?” Shiki drawls, while texting his driver to come get him.

“Bottoms don’t need to come.”

Shiki stops texting, and the other man sighs.

“I didn’t mean that. Look, he could have left if he wanted to. He could have stopped us if he wanted to. And you didn’t say anything either if I remember rightly, so don’t make out that I’m the evil rapist here.”

“I’m not,” Shiki sighs, pinching the bridge of his nose. “I’m just - sometimes I think about him more than I should. He’s very strange, isn’t he? Why does he do this if he’s so nervous about it?”

“Maybe he loves you,” Akabayashi suggests. “But anyway, don’t worry. He’ll be back.”

-

And Izaya does come back. He doesn’t stay the night this time either however, claiming to have an early meeting the following morning.

“So have I,” Shiki says. “I’ll drop you home.”

They are quiet in the car, idle and content with post-sex, making lazy remarks here and there as the streetlights drift past. When they pull up outside Izaya’s apartment he says casually, “Do you want to come up for a drink?”

Shiki looks at him, but his eyes are unreadable in the dark. He leans forward and tells his driver to go ahead and drop the car off, he’ll get a taxi home.

They are quiet in the lift. Izaya is relaxed, at ease. Maybe they really will have a drink. Or, maybe he’s going to tell me he’s had enough, that he wants to stop this and for me to tell Akabayashi. 

They get into the apartment, and Izaya closes the door behind him. Then he turns to Shiki without saying anything, his eyes helpless, and Shiki understands right away and moves in. He pushes the informant against the wall, pressing his body into him, and it feels so good to have that body all to himself, to cover every inch of it with his own. 

The informant had showered at Akabayashi’s place, and his skin is soft and fresh-tasting against Shiki’s lips. They undress each other hurriedly, Izaya more aggressive than he usually was, pulling Shiki’s hair as the older man easily lifts him up. They only move to the bedroom when they remember that’s where the lube is.

-

The alarm on Shiki’s phone is like an ice-pick to the head. He can only have slept for a couple of hours. Although he shuts it off at the first buzz, the informant’s eyes are open, watching him.

“Morning,” Shiki murmurs. 

“You really have an early meeting?”

“Don’t you?”

“No, just felt like coming home.”

Shiki feels for his clothes in and around the bed. He will just have enough time to get home, shower and change. He can feel Izaya watching him.

“Why do you do this, Izaya?” he hears himself asking. It is the first time he’s called him by his first name to his face, but the informant doesn’t seem to notice. “You could do better than Akabayashi and I.”

He seems surprised by the question, and he laughs at the last part. “You should give yourself more credit, Shiki-san,” he teases. “You’re both big, sexy Yakuza. And I think it’s important to have lots of experiences, to do things that scare you.” He thinks for a moment. “Akabayashi does make me nervous, though.”

“Why’s that?”

“He told me he didn’t like me when we first met, that he’d beat me up if he were a younger man. I think part of him still feels the same way. I think he’d turn on me before you would. I think if he had the opportunity to kill me he’d take it, and he’d enjoy it.”

“Neither of us want to kill you.” Shiki is frowning, paused in his dressing. “He likes you, I’d be able to tell if he didn’t.”

“Why do you do this if he makes you so nervous?” 

“I don’t really know.” Izaya looks thoughtful but absent, as if there are pondering something that had nothing whatsoever to do with him. Then he grins. Shiki notices that this is the first time that Izaya had looked smug after sex. “Also, you’re better in bed.”

That was because he had gone slower, taken his time more, been able to listen to and play with Izaya’s body without any distractions, and it had felt more natural, more intense.

Once, they had fucked alone in Akabayashi’s bed, when the latter was in the shower, hurriedly and quietly, although the other man was hardly likely to stop them. It was more intimate, more intense. Izaya had hidden under the covers when Akabayashi came back, to hide his flushed skin and sweat-soaked hair.

Another time, Shiki had been late arriving at Akabayashi’s. He’d been getting tetchy, thinking about them getting started without him, which of course they would be. Unless Izaya decides to stall. When he finally for there, he had a long wait at the door, thinking they must be in bed, when Izaya cracked open the door naked, wet from the shower, where he had indeed been stalling. And Shiki had pushed him back and into the wall, covering him greedily with his body. Akabayashi later told him he had enjoyed watching them fuck. That night, Shiki had fallen asleep with one arm draped over Izaya’s back, and in their sleep they’d shifted together to fit each other’s empty spaces. They woken up like this, two halves of the same whole. Akabayashi had mocked, and Shiki had told him to fuck off without opening his eyes.

He remembers the stab of possessiveness he'd felt the first time Akabayashi had kissed Izaya on the mouth. 

“I make more effort,” Shiki says at last, doing up his belt and shrugging on his jacket. He feels for his socks and shoes.

“Have the two of you shared lovers before?”

“No,” Shiki says, surprised by the question. “And I wouldn’t have imagined we ever would. The whole thing started with a bet.”

“A bet?”

Shiki stills. 

“So it was a joke.” The hurt is apparent by the sudden coldness in his voice.

“Not a joke,” Shiki says, soothing his hand over the blankets covering the informant. “We both wanted you. But I never thought you’d go for it. I thought the suggestion would make you very uncomfortable.”

“It did.”

The silence hangs over them. Shiki is going to be late if he still plans to go home and shower, but he doesn’t care. Izaya yawns.

“Do I have to make you breakfast?”

“No. I’m heading straight out. Enjoy your lie-in.”

Izaya is already back under the covers, smug smile back on his face.

-

“I think I’m in love,” Akabayashi says, when they’re next at the HQ together, and fortunately he’s doing something on his phone and so misses Shiki almost ruining his suit with the cup of tea in his hand.

Shiki steadies himself, replacing his tea, and confirms,

“With Izaya?”

“What? No. God.” Akabayashi starts laughing. He puts his phone aside and thinks for a moment, his eyes growing soft. “It’s our rival’s widow,” he admits eventually. “You know I’ve been negotiating with her. She’s been doing a lot behind the scenes for years. Smart as a whip, beautiful, a much better leader than her rat of a former husband.”

“You don’t think she’s…?”

“Of course, she could try to manipulate me,” he says at once. “But so far, she’s not flirting and neither am I. She’s very hard to read. But, I don’t get the feeling that she’s too devastated about her husband. Everyone knows what a shit he was.”

Shiki doesn’t say anything for a moment.

He and Izaya had spent another night alone together, this time at Shiki’s. This time, they had liaised with each other directly. After they’d come, still tight in each other’s arms, Shiki says into Izaya’s hair, “I don’t think I want to share you any more.”

The informant nods wordlessly.

-

Akabayashi barely blinks when Shiki tells him the news. 

“I’m not surprised. He’s always liked you more,” he says. “Did you go home together that night you both left?”

“Yes,” he admits.

Akabayashi nods, unsurprised. “What’s he like by himself?”

“...Different,” Shiki allows, after a moment’s thought. He chooses not to disclose anything else. Akabayashi doesn’t seem very interested anyway.

“I went for dinner with Keiko.”

“Who?”

“The widow,” he says impatiently. “Yamogana-san. I’m not kidding. I think I’m really in love.”

“Poor Yamogana-san.”

“You’re laughing now, just wait til it happens to you.”

-

Shiki keeps Izaya informed about their former lover. To his surprise, now the threesome doesn't happen, Izaya is fairly cold towards Akabayashi. Oblivious, Akabayashi invites him for dinner and drinks occasionally, and can’t fathom why the informant always turns him down.

“I don’t like him,” Izaya insists when Shiki brings it up. “I already told you why. He threatened me once.”

“You do hold a grudge, don’t you?”

“Yes.” It is clear he's not joking.

“You’ve been sleeping with him for months.”

“Him and you,” Izaya corrects.

Shiki will have to watch him, he realises. The informant may be occasionally submissive in bed, but he was ruthless, formidable, when he decided he didn’t like someone. In a twisted way, this bitterness, this strength of feeling made Shiki love him all the more.

He runs his fingers through Izaya’s hair.

“Run it by me first if you decide to have him killed.”

“Sure.”


End file.
